http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , Australia , Northern Territory , Uluru en-us Mon, 20 May 2013 06:46:18 +0000 Mon, 20 May 2013 06:46:18 +0000 Hello from red dirt centralThe last 10 days we have been doing the gaps gorges chasms canyons holes and rocks out from Alice.We restocked all supplies including a necessary brake repair to our Prado which saw it in the shop for a few days which made for some creative transport options as Julie and Craig have removed their back seats and we didn39t have a spare bike helmet but we managed http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-784957.html http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-780511.html On Saturday we flew from Sydney to Uluru Ayers Rock in old money. Stayed at the Desert Gardens hotel in the Uluru resort only four choices of accomodation type here all owned by the same group. On Saturday evening we watched the sun set over Uluru. There are several aboriginal creation stories the geological story being of a sandstone formation that rose up around 400 million years ago. Uluru http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-774680.html It really is true what they say of the Outback it goes on forever. Flying from Cairns to Alice Springs as soon as we pass over the coastal mountain ranges the vastness of interior Australia hits you. About 23 of Australia39s population is gathered in its urbanized coastal cities primarily the east coast. The government categorizes the population ranging from Major Cities to Very Remote http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-769108.html I can see why the centre of Australia is called The Red Centre. It is just that And its as beautiful as it is striking. Kings Canyon was without a doubt one of the highlights of this trip. After an early start to the day the early mornings are definitely the best time for driving as its still cool we did the 6km hike around the rim of Kings Canyon. Its a steep climb to the top b http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-756408.html Howdy Folks we hope you enjoyed the first part of this update now get your cocoa ready for the main presentation... At this time of year Darwin experiences what is called 39the build up39. Here the heat and humidity increases but it doesn39t rain. Aircon usage goes through the roof and people just sweat when they cross the street. We decided that it was time to leave Darwin and hit the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-750453.html It was another hot NT day when we decided to tackle the Olgas. They are in the same national park as Uluru about 50 km away. The experience is quite different as you walk amongst them rather than around a single monolith. Their texture is also different as they are composed of conglomerate rather than pure sandstone.The valley of winds walk was true to name as the monoliths funnelled the winds a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-745474.html We tried for a reasonably early start on the Uluru base walk about 10km to beat the forecast 36C heat. When we arrived there were already lots of people climbing the rock. We were surprised to see so many people still doing it. It looked like very hard work with many on their hands and knees.Seeing the rock up close made it seem more real and the ever changing views were awesome. It is hard http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-744837.html The first day of our journey we departed at 930 the second day it was 830 and on the third it was 730. This was obviously not a trend that could be maintained. Joan was pleased to note that we departed at 815 today.Today we discovered what a difference a tail wind can make when pulling a caravan. We recorded a 14l100 Km difference in fuel consumption between and head or a tail wind. Sadl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-744414.html Kings Canyon and Uluru29th August 2012 Mikes birthdayWe left camp just before 8am. We called into Alice Springs for fuel and had morning tea at the Finke River. This is the worlds oldest river 350 million years old. We saw several wedge tailed eagles as we continued. We had lunch at Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse which now offers no services at all then continued to Kings Canyon Resort where we http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-740231.html What kind of nutter would book themselves on a day trip which involves travelling 1100 kms on a bus Me for starters and apparently a whole bunch of other people too.So at 6.00am I was waiting for the bus outside my hotel. It was freezing in Alice Springs about 3 degrees although the locals tell me thats good last week it was 2 degrees. The bus finally rolled by and I joined a coach load o http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-735269.html Wowee. We39re driving along through the flat flat desert and then it39s sort of like bam All of a sudden there39s this huge giant beautiful rock in front of you. Uluru is the Aboriginal name for the rock that is also known as Ayers Rock. Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginal people and is one of the most recognisable landmarks in Australia. People travel from across the globe to visit it. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-732827.html Our next little trip was out to UluruKata Tjuta National Park which most of you probably know as Ayer39s Rock. It39s in the middle of the Australian Outback technically considered semiarid and not desert. It39s so far away from any other towns the nearest city is 1200 kilometers away and the main road west is a dirt road for thousands of miles. They39ve actually had above ave http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-695277.html Day 14614829th31stJanuaryThis blog is dedicated to my Grandma. She always wanted to go to Uluru and loved looking at these photos and hearing all about it when we returned. We miss you every day. xxx We had an early flight the next day to Uluru and Wade and Melissa had really kindly offered to drive us to Sydney Airport which was really cool of them because we had to leave the house at 6am W http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-686546.html Day 120 090112 Up at 415am It was still dark but it was worth it as we watched the sunrise over Uluru whilst eating our breakfast. We did the Base walk which was pretty long and we did get a bit wet because of the rain but it soon cleared up and we were fine. The Base walk is basically a walk around the whole rock and is about 7km39s which is strange because the whole perimiter of the roc http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-678387.html Uluru has been deemed sacred for thousands of years by the Anangu the Aboriginal people in the red centre of Australia. Many spiritual vortices emanate a solid resonance that strongly grounds you with the red first chakra hues ubiquitous in the rock and dirt. The grounding force roots you so deeply to the land that you feel the connection to an ancient place in time and space. The geological http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-666260.html I39m not sure how I expected to feel when I got to Uluru. I was excited to be in the outbackexcited to be in a place with so much geology exposed excited to be surrounded by so much openness and sky...My threeday tour began yesterday with a meeting with the driver and one of the other people from Emu Run Tours to discuss the meals and how it would work with my food allergies. Last night wa http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-664672.html Did a 3day trip to Uluru Kata Tjuta Kings Canyon. Last time I visited here was 25 years ago with my family. The sites facilities have been updated and improved a fair bit since then with greater emphasis on the sacred sites which I really liked. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-655529.html Greetings from Central Australia.Week 7 of our great journey has taken us to some weird and wonderful and spectacular places in Central Australia.We started the week driving past the Devil39s Marbles Karlu Karlu ... on our way to the over hyped Whycliffe Wells UFO Capital of Australia.On Father39s Day we headed to Alice Springs. Great place. We stayed 3 nights there.Finally we headed http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-649895.html I was up early to be picked up by my tour. I met Florent and Stephanie at my hostel who were coming on the same tour and the 3 of us hit it off straight away. Florent is from France and Stephanie is from Germany.We had an interesting mix of people in group. Some older people and a few younger ones. We started heading out of Alice towards Uluru. We stopped to see fooluru but it was too smokey to http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-648998.html